Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

Summer is just around the corner.   I’ve been thinking about vacations and trying to decide if we can fit one in before July or we should wait until August since we need to be home in July. We had a bodacious Spring Break, driving to Orlando to visit Legoland, Universal’s Islands of Adventure and the Holy Land Experience.   Although we didn’t take a full week, we got to see three separate theme parks, all very different from each other.   I booked my room online and got a pretty good rate since we stayed in Kissimmee.   But now I know, I could have booked my room and supported four nonprofit organizations at the same time through Hotels for Hope (H4H).   With summer vacations coming up, I want to share with you how you can find a great hotel at a good price and have a little of that cash go into a charity’s pocket. It’s been a little over two years since H4H started its mission to help charities Special Olympics Texas, A Glimmer of Hope, Livestrong and Tragedy Assistance

This is National Volunteer Week, a week for recognition of volunteers in America.   I wasn’t going to say anything about it because I don’t believe volunteers do what they do for rewards and I have a bunch of ideas for blogs that I need to get written before summer comes. But then I found out about some cool programs for volunteers that you, my readers, might be interested in knowing about. The first is from the Points of Light Institute . Through Sunday, they have a contest for volunteers to tell their stories for the chance to win a cruise to Alaska . Called Celebrating People in Action, it’s a wonderful way to share a volunteering story and win a prize for a fabulous volunteer, either yourself or someone you know.   With L’Oreal Paris, Points of Light is also sponsoring the Women of Worth program , giving $10,000 to ten female honorees to donate to their charity of choice.   All honorees will go to New York City in December to be recognized and one will receive an additional

Easter has come and gone. It was a busy but nice day for us.   I volunteer in our church’s three and four year old Sunday School class and usually have from about 17 to 23 kids in there.   I have a helper most days, too, because that’s a lot of kids for one person. This Easter, we ended up having 35 children in the class.   Thank God for my friend who came in during the first service to drop off her child and saw that I had 31 children already. She volunteered to help me and in the end we split the class up into two classes next door to each other.   The kids are so adorable.   They love the little games we play in there like playing hot potato with different items or taping stickers to a picture on the wall. They also love to share. One child shared his mealtime prayer on Easter with the rest of us, closing his eyes and singing it to the whole class. I’m sure you’ve heard of the James 1:27 verse: “Re ligion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look

As of yesterday I have been volunteering for the American Cancer Society (ACS) for one year.   It has been a great experience.   The people I volunteer for are so appreciative of my work.   I’ve had the chance to brush up on my clerical skills.   I enjoy getting out of the house, meeting new people and being involved in an organization that’s making a difference in the world.   The kicker is that because I have volunteered more than 40 hours in the past year (other studies say 100 hours), I also am in better health than if I hadn’t volunteered. You read that right, volunteering more than 40 hours a year makes you healthier. At least that’s true according to the Corporation for National and Community Service which reviewed two decades of research on the benefits of volunteering.   Here are a few of the results: ·          Volunteering enhances a person's social networks to buffer stress and reduce disease     risk ·          Individuals who volunteer live longer ( even whe